Inuyasha and the Limbless Victims
by Akitoa.k.a.Kito
Summary: Inuyasha, Kagome, and Miroku are in search of a creature who seems to only devour only a part of a human. It seems illogical for a predator, but what is the real motive of this creature? Is it practice hunting, or is there a deeper motive? (Sorry for a ho
1. The Strong, Young Man

Summary: A strange creature has appeared among many villages – each very distant from each other. Instead of feasting upon prey, it seems as though the creature only feasts on only parts of the body. Is it a creature learning to hunt humans, or does it have other plans?

Kagome, Inuyasha, and Miroku set off to find the creature and destroy it before more people become limbless.

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Knock knock.

Kagome started to wake up.

Knock knock.

"It must be mom!" she thought. She jumped out off her bed and went to her desk. "I'm working!" she yelled back.

"Kagome! Open up."

The voice sounded like Inuyasha's. She opened the door.

"Ahh! What are you doing here?" she asked. It was Inuyasha.

"Quick!" he grabbed her wrist. "We need you're help."

They both sped-walked to the kitchen.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"It's pretty disgusting. I think it's best if you hear the story from the real people. Quick, pack up food and stuff. It's pretty long."

Kagome packed up Ramen noodles, aid kit, and other supplies that she thought would be needed. She put on the overloaded backpack, and started to run out the door.

"I'm going off to the well again! Goodbye!" she yelled back to her grandfather.

"Where's Kagome going?" her brother asked.

"Oh, she's off to save the world. What disease should we tell her friends this time?"

"Tell them she's got diarrhea!"

"No, I'll just tell them that she has a cold," Grandfather paused a bit, "with diarrhea!"

"Yeah!"

They entered into the past, where Miroku greeted them with a young man. He had bandages wrapped all over and seemed to have a missing arm.

"Inuyasha," Miroku yelled to Inuyasha as they ran to Miroku. "Here's another victim."

"Oh my! What happened to you?" Kagome asked and started to get her aid kit.

"Oh, it was horrible. I was sleeping in my room, until some sort of beast, a black beast, with weird, beady eyes looked at me. I cried out 'Go away, Demon' but it did not listen and it jumped on top of me. I felt extreme pain in my right shoulder. It bit the shoulder – it had claws too or something to cut my whole arm off!" The young man kept looking at his shoulder and checking his surroundings.

"See, Kagome," Inuyasha said. "This creature is attacking people all over the land. I've heard people from the east, west, north, south – you name the places, and many of them said that they had been attacked by the same creature that this man had described to us."

Kagome finished up putting a few more bandages around the man's shoulder.

"I think that this creature can fly, or at least transport from place to place very quickly," Miroku said.

"If it's fast, then we have to track where it's headed for next," Inuyasha said. "Any idea where it might go?"

"Ah…I don't know which direction it went," the man said and started to get frightened. "The creature might be around these forests. I-I was too busy to….to…"

"You don't have to answer," Inuyasha said.

They walked with the man back home.

"It's stranger, don't you think?" Kagome started. "Why would the monster only take a part of him? I mean, if it wanted to eat the man, wouldn't it eat him whole?"

"It could be a baby practicing to hunt. All we can do now is gather more information before we can generalize anything," Miroku said.

"So how'd this monster look like?" Inuyasha asked.

"It's…It was on the ceiling. It could stick on walls, like a spider," the man said, still afraid that the same monster would jump out and snatch his other arm.

"I think we should see Lady Kaede," Miroku said.

After they made sure that the young man was safe in his house, although he clung onto them, begging them not to leave him alone, they left. They started on their path to Lady Kaede, hoping that she was familiar with a creature such as this.

"I'm glad that it's summertime that this is happening," Kagome said.

"This vacation you talk about," Inuyasha started, "how come it is relaxing?"

"Because you don't have to do any work!" Kagome shot her hands in the air and enjoyed the warm breeze.

"You mean, no more farming?"

"Nope. We don't farm, unless you're a farmer."

"What about that evil thing called Algebra?"

Kagome laughed. "Inuyasha, you're right; algebra is evil."

"This algebra doesn't help you navigate the forests or improve food, so why is it so important to know?" Miroku came into the conversation.

"I don't know," Kagome lied. She felt rather to not answer his question, or else a whole new conversation of 'What's an occupation, Kagome?' or 'What's an engineer?' would come up.

It was noon when they reached the village. Even though the sun was up, there were many pots of flowers and lighted candles in front of the villagers' homes.

"What's going on?" Kagome wondered.

"Maybe someone died," Miroku said.

"Who's death is so great that the whole village would mourn over? What? Is it the death of Lady Kaede?" Inuyasha joked, but right when he said those words, the three adventurers paused for a moment, and started to run to Lady Kaede's house.

As they ran, Miroku passed by a very beautiful woman.

"Oh! You are a very beautiful maiden! What is your name?" Miroku stopped and kissed her hand.

"Oh my. You are such a polite monk," the beautiful woman replied, blushing from the kiss.

"Hey, Miroku! Flirt later!" Inuyasha yelled from a distant. Everyone heard and looked at the monk.

"I'm sorry. I have to go. Me and my accomplices have some work to do," Miroku said.

"If you want to know, my name is Anzu."

"Lady Kaede!" Kagome was the first to enter.

There was a woman who seemed to be a nurse, for she was sitting next to Lady Kaede's bedside.

"What's happening?" Miroku asked.

Inuyasha came in last.

"Lady Kaede is very sick. Her spirit is in the clouds. She will not wake for the past three days. I am afraid that she may die," the nurse said.

Kagome put her hand in front of Kaede's nose and felt a weak breath come out.

"She's alive, right?" Inuyasha asked.

"Yes, thank goodness," Kagome was relieved.

"Good. I knew that that old hag wouldn't die in a few millennia's," Inuyasha crossed his arms and looked away.

"I think she may be in a coma," Kagome said thoughtfully.

"A coma?" Miroku turned to the nurse. "Do you know when-"

"I don't know anything at all what will happen to her except that she will not wake no matter what. Her spirit has not returned."

"Are you being literal? Has her spirit flown away?" Kagome asked.

"I don't know."

"I was wondering," Miroku started, "I know this is off topic, but has a strange creature came about this village?"

"No. Why? What kind of creature?"

"A creature had attacked a man in a nearby village – it took his arm, but the rest of his body is fine. We are in search of this creature and thought that Lady Kaede may know what this creature is. Unfortunately, we came to her three days short," Miroku looked down at the old woman breathing softly.

"You are welcome to stay for the night. I am sure that Lady Kaede's spirit would enjoy your company and take note of your loyalty to her," the nurse got up. "I am going to get water. Please watch over her while I take leave. I will be back."

The nurse left the room. A warm breeze blew through the window.

"Poor Kaede. I hope she wakes up soon," Kagome said.

"To make this conversation a little more light-hearted," Miroku started, "we scored a free place to stay for tonight. I'm so happy, yet so sad for Kaede." Miroku sat right next to Kagome purposely and started to put his hand on her shoulder.

"You know, Kagome," he started.

"Get your hands off of me, Miroku, and sit somewhere else. Sit next to Inuyasha or something," Kagome said sharply.

"Alright. Very well," Miroku elegantly got up and sat crossed legged on the floor next to Inuyasha. "You know, Inuyasha," he started again and tried to put his hand on Inuyasha's shoulder.

"Miroku, if you –" Inuyasha started.

Miroku laughed. "Just kidding, my fellow dog-loving friend!"

"Don't call me 'dog-loving'!" he angrily said back.

"Oh come now! I'm just stating your personality!" Inuyasha punched Miroku's big happy-faced smile to the ground.

"See?" Miroku said in pain while his head is still on the floor. "I'm a 'ground' hog. Haha. Get it? I'm on the ground, and…yes."

"Why do I feel as though many people pray for your safety everyday?" Inuyasha asked out loud.

"I hope those people are many girls! Oh yeah! Beautiful girls all dreaming of being with me!" Miroku started to dance around the room until the nurse came back, who was wide-eyed and shocked at Miroku dancing. Miroku detected this entered presence, so he stopped, fixed the collar of his shirt, and sat down somewhere else, away from the other two.

"You know, my fellow monk," the nurse said as she wet a towel with the water.

"Yes!" Miroku thought that she was going to flirt with him.

"If you're going through a stroke, tell me next time," she said, teasing the way he danced. Inuyasha laughed out loud – loud enough to make Miroku angry.

"Miroku tried to flirt with Inuyasha," Kagome joked some more.

"Oh, I see!" the nurse giggled some more.

"Hey, I heard that!" Miroku said, with narrow eyes on the two ladies.

The night came, with the moon overlooking the village and tiny stars twinkling about the soft, velvet sky.

"I hope Kaede gets better. I want her to be okay, and to find out more about the mysterious creature," Kagome thought.

"Get up, you guys!" Inuyasha jumped to his feet. "A strange scent entered the village. It's the monster.


	2. The Most Beautiful Maiden

Intro to Chapter 2: The creature has chosen a young woman as its next victim. Will the creature devour her whole in front of their (Inuyasha, Kagome, and Miroku) eyes, or will it devour only a part of her – an action that seems illogical for a predator?

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"I can smell the creature," Inuyasha growled. "Follow me!" He exited the house through a window, while Miroku and Kagome ran out of the front door. Inuyasha jumped from house roof to house roof.

A familiar voice screamed nearby.

"That voice! It sounds familiar!" Miroku yelled.

"But who is it? We don't know anyone from this village!" Kagome said.

Inuyasha crashed in the house through the front door – or ended up breaking the door into splinters of wood. On the ceiling of the room was a giant, spider-like creature holding a woman by the head.

"I've found you!" he said and started to jump onto the spider. The spider made a noise of disgust and jumped off the ceiling. It ran across the room making a hard pitter-patter sound against the wooden floor. With the woman's head tight in its clasp, before it could jump out the window, Inuyasha rebounded off the ceiling and landed on top of the giant, furry spider.

Kagome put the arrow into her bow, and started to aim. She couldn't shoot because Inuyasha was in the way, and she might hurt the woman, so she stood her ground until Inuyasha was at least out of the way.

Inuyasha took his claws and pierced them into the head of the creature. The creature screamed out in pain. It tried to shake Inuyasha off, but found it couldn't. Then spores opened up all around the spider's body. These small holes started to ooze out a black liquid that camouflaged with its furry body. Seeing his clothes dissolving from this liquid, he jumped off and the spider went out the window.

"We're following it!" Inuyasha jumped out the window after it.

The spider creature was well aware of the three people running after it, so it jumped onto a tree trunk and ran up. Inuyasha was too late. He didn't know which tree it went up. He jumped onto a random tree branch and started to explore the treetops to search for the monster.

The same voice screamed out even louder.

"A woman!" Kagome pointed at a falling body.

"Find the monster! Don't worry!" Miroku said in a rush, for he planned to catch the falling woman.

Inuyasha, in the heat of a chase, did not reply back and kept exploring the treetops.

"Inuyasha! North of the forest!" Kagome aimed her arrow at the monster running away. She pulled the bow back as far as it could go, for the monster was running too fast. She released, and then took out another arrow and ran towards the monster. The first arrow hit the spider's back. She stopped running and prepared the next arrow. Inuyasha was waiting for her to spring the second arrow before attacking. The second bow missed.

"Die!" Inuyasha jumped off a high branch of a tree. Inuyasha landed on something soft and started to fight this creature in the dark. Although he could not see anything, he still attacked the creature by means of touch, smell, and sound. He ripped pieces of the monster – limbs, leg by leg, the shell on its back, the face, and other parts of the creature's massive body.

Kagome stayed out of the fighting area because she could not see anything past her standing point.

Inuyasha came back out; hands and clothes full of blood. "How's the woman?" he asked.

The woman was still screaming. Her hands wailed in the air, while Miroku carried her to the other two.

"Her face is gone," Miroku said.

There, in front of the Inuyasha and Kagome, was a faceless maiden. All they saw were two holes for eyes, a mouth without teeth, and a burnt face on her head. She looked as though she was in the process of decaying.

"I can't make her stop screaming," Miroku yelled very loudly over the screaming. The villagers came and asked, "What happened?"

"Do you know this woman?" Inuyasha asked.

The villagers were shocked at the appearance of the woman. Some even fainted from the sight of a decayed face.

"Is she alive?" another woman asked.

"She's screaming isn't she?" Miroku asked.

"That is Anzu!" a man cried out. "That is my daughter!"

"Anzu," Miroku said under his breath. "The woman who was the most beautiful lady I've ever seen is now the ugliest," he thought.

Anzu's father took Anzu and muttered to her words of love. He hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. The mother ran up to their daughter and hugged her as well.

"Anzu, you will always be our lovely daughter, no matter how you look. We love you," the mother hugged her daughter as tight as possible. "We love you," she whispered again. Anzu continued to cry, but this time, it is not from fright, but from pain.

A woman with herbs came and helped the poor lady.

"That must be painful," Inuyasha said quietly.

Kagome looked at him.

He continued, "How her eyes were taken out, her tongue, her lips, teeth, and ears. The most painful of all must be the taking away of her face. No one can identify her unless she speaks."

"Inuyasha, would you leave me if I ended up like Anzu?" Kagome asked.

Some girls looked at Anzu, and said a few words among themselves, then ran away. Apparently, they were the young lady's friends. It seems as though Anzu's friendships were broken because of her looks, but the bond between her family and her grew stronger.

"Kagome, what kind of person do you think of me as to make you ask such a question?" Inuyasha replied.

Inuyasha walked back into the forest and took a look at the spider. As expected, the spider had the face of the beautiful maiden, an arm of a strong young man, and five other spider legs.

Inuyasha came back to the other two and said, "I think I know what these monsters are up to."

"Did you say 'these'?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah. I bet there's more than one."

"What are they up to?"

"I think they steal parts of the body from any creature to be the most beautiful, the strongest, or any other personal goal they have," Inuyasha stated slowly.

"It doesn't make sense because if a lot of these creatures have the same goal, they have competition," Kagome said, "and how can they change their spider-looking figure?"

"Do you think there is head monster behind all of this?" Miroku asked.

"I think," Inuyasha said, "that there's something bigger hiding behind these creature's personal goals. There are a lot of questions right now, but I'm sure that we'll find some sort of answer."


End file.
